Seeing The World for the 1st Time (again)-1st time PTR w/pics INPUT WELCOME

Howdy!
Okay, so how does this work exactly???
This will be my first PTR ever.
(so ummm, please pardon our appearance – as this is a work in progress.)
And uh - please ignore the spelling and grammatical mistakes.

[*]#1 (you are looking at it) Cast Members and Background - who we and what we are about
[*]#3 How this trip came to be - More background info
[*]#4 Information Please - the who, what, & where I found my info
[*]#8 We are going When?? -Dates
[*]#10 Our Home Away from Home/ Getting There!/ Tickets Please! - Hotel, Flight, & Park tickets
[*]#22-23 ADR’s a.k.a Automatic Dieter’s Remorse - Dining Dilema
[*]#31 Food Glorious Food - More about Dining
[*]#38 Mickey Mouse makes me cry! - I am just a sap for that mouse
[*]#43 Hi, My name is Jill, …and I am a list maker - a little more about me and my OCD tendancies
[*]#44 My Disney Planning Lists - Lists, lists, & more lists
[*]#52 Happy Birthday to Leon, Happy Birthday to Leon, Happy Birthday to Yoooou - Birthday surprises
[*]#53-54 A Tisket a Tasket a Great Big Birthday Basket....- More Birthday Surprises

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We Are Going To See The World for the First Time (again).
I say “again” because although I have been to Disney twice before in my adult life and twice as a child, it would seem for some reason anything pre-DS doesn't seem to count as much. I know it will be like going for the first time again because we will be experiencing it through our son's eyes this time.

Okay so here are the Cast Members:​

Our Star : LEON – my DS5, a.k.a. Prince Leon (first (and only) son, grandson, nephew, etc.. –you get the picture – spoiled), The Capt. (cause he’s a self proclaimed pirate – duh), George (cause he is sooo curious and gets into EVERYTHING), our Drama Llama (cause Drama Queen is not fitting for a boy), Boy Genius (cause he is UNBELIEVABLY smart for his age), and Old Man (because he is (too) wise beyond his years). Leon will be turning 6 while we are there so we will be celebrating his birthday Disney style, along with it being his first trip, as well as Thanksgiving. He’s a great kid, but a handful. (Read extremely impulsive and intensely hyperactive). The principle knows him very well (and he’s only in kindergarten)

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Best Supporting Actor & First Mate: RON – my "I'm just going for the ride", “you decide”, “do whatever you think is best” DH35, a.k.a. Matey (as The Capt. calls him), SuperDad (we are a super hero family) and Charlie Brown (because mostly he’s a Good Man (Charlie Brown), but other times he can be a real Block Head). My husband is my Knight in Shining Armor, he does everything in his power to make Leon and I happy. This man works all day and then comes home and does dishes, tidies up the house, and he even does laundry. He is also the man who is letting me go nuts in planning this trip (with in reason )

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Then there’s me: JILL – 39, a.k.a. SuperMom (my powers are – have eyes in the back of my head, can spot trouble coming a mile away and has healing hugs and kisses) and Jillo, Cruise Director (remember the Love Boat – I always wanted to be Julie) funny though, I’ve never been on a cruise, YET. I am a SAHM (stay-at home mom), who baby sits 3 kids to earn money for Disney. I love my family, photography, and planning trips.

Some background:]​

I used to work for an airline, so I took plenty of trips while I was single and a few for the first couple years of marriage. However Fibromyalgia forced me to go part-time and money became tight. That, along with poor financial planning, the birth of my son, a car accident that permanently screwed up my back, and my job being outsourced to Canada ultimately put us into the poorhouse. Our debts have debts. But despite that we always managed to take one or two vacations (well, we called them vacations, they where really just weekend getaways). My in-laws have a campsite in PA on the Delaware River, so we would stay with them a few days and then tack on an outing to Sesame Place, or a nearby water park. Money has always been an issue for us (especially DH), it is the reason we only have one child, as opposed to the Brady Bunch. So for us to go on this trip, it is BIG!

** Next installment - post #3 How this trip came to be - More background info​

As Ive already mentioned, Ive been to Disney before. Twice as a child  which I barely remember. One trip was with my relatives from Germany in 1981, and the other was with my mom, my sister and one of my moms friends family.
I also went twice as an adult. The first was in 90-something with a girlfriend from work, we stayed off property and only paid $20 a night total. We did MK, MGM, and Epcot. The highlight of the trip was discovering that a bartender I once knew from back home, was a CM at the Raiders of the Lost Ark Stunt Show, we also suspected that he was also wearing the Beast costume later in the day but we could not confirm it for sure.
My second trip as an adult was with Ron for our 1 year Anniversary in Oct 2001 (although our anniversary is actually in May. I figured One Year is traditionally a paper gift, and tickets are made of paper. We stayed a few days off property and went to Universal and Discovery Cove and then we switched to the Caribbean Beach Resort. It was both of our first times on property.

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Ron has been to WDW a few times as a kid too. I completely fell in love with the whole Disney experience. Right then and there I knew I wanted to go back at least once a year. But given our circumstances that following year, we soon realized it just wasnt going to happen. I started a Disney change fund, where we were not allowed to use coins for anything but the fund. Finally 7 years later, the change fund, and a small settlement from a lawsuit gave us just enough to pay a portion of our debt and put aside exactly enough for Hotel, Air, & Park Tickets. We probably should have put all of it towards our debt, but I felt we really deserve this. Plus who knows when we will get the chance again. So I started planning.

The Plan (a list, in no particular order):​

~Read everything I can find on WDW. (UG, Birnbaums, Passporter, etc)
~Search every website I can find for Disney info. (Mousesavers, AllEars, The Dis, etc.)
~Ask questions, get info from everyone I meet
~Start collecting items for special Birthday Basket from Mickey to Leon
~Collect various Disigns, to print out for invitations, t-shirts, activity books, etc .
~Decide on dates
~Book Hotel
~Find Airfare
~Book Air
~Decide where we want to dine
~Make ADRs
~Choose Park Tickets
~Buy Park Tickets
~Decide if we want to leave the World
~Plan daily schedule
~Change mind (and plans) several times a week.
~Plan what to take

Next installment -#4 Information Please - the who, what, & where I found my info​

I didn’t start out searching for information, information found me! You see, every year for the past 4 years I have put the same request on my gift wishlist.

(Sidenote- I have to say this – I love building wishlists. It’s something I keep going through out the year, It helps me remember what the whole family has been wanting through out the year. It is especially good for Ron, because he will mention something in Jan. but come his birthday in May, when asked what he would like, he says “I don’t know” –“I know I needed a few things, but I can’t remember what”. Both our families are big gift givers, and rely on me to tell them what to get. I keep track of everything on wishcentral.com , a great site that lets you list from any store on or off the web.
….umm okay so back to the PTR)

And for the past 4 years, I did not receive it. Well that is until this past Christmas. For Christmas my mother-in-law bought me the 2008 Unofficial Guide and the 2008 Passporter.

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I was thrilled, because after all this time, it was so unexpected! And not that we had given up on WDW, we just had not spoken about it in some time – although our change fund was still going strong. I started reading the UG right then and there! Highlighting as I went. By the time I was halfway through, I told Ron, in no uncertain terms that we ARE going to Disney this year, even if we had to leave him home. He was skeptical, because at this point my lawsuit which began in 2004, still had not settled.
(side note – I was rear ended by a Mack truck at a stop light and my back was badly injured which exasperated my FMS) And our finances were still quite thin. They’ve been getting better, with his promotion & raise. But we still had a long way to go to get our heads above water. I just kept reading and highlighting. I would tell him all about it as I went along and all he would say is “sounds expensive” “we’ll see what we can do”. I was still determined. I imagined every possible way of doing this to save money. Staying off property, driving instead of flying, bringing a cooler full of frozen water and dry food to last us the week – so we didn’t have to dine at the parks, forget the water parks and park hopping, etc. I figured I would have to make tons of sacrifices but we were going!!!
Two weeks later my lawyer tells me the suit is going to trial I never thought it would get that far, but my lawyer said it was a good thing. We started to get excited, I told Ron that after everything I had gone through for the past 4 years, I deserved this trip and that I was going to take at least 3 thousand if not more (depending on how much we got) for Disney and he can have the rest to pay some bills. He now started to get excited, he had some grandiose ideas about what we would do with the money – go to Disney (the way I really wanted to go, pay off all our bills, buy a new WORKING van, and more. He was getting out of hand. When Ron dreams, he dreams BIG! Too big sometimes – think Ralph Cramden from the Honeymooners. I told him that he should not get too excited, I really did not expect to get that much, I would have been happy with $10,000. But he had $-signs in his eyes. He had a much, much, much larger number in his head. And although I KNEW it was unlikely, it was infectious, I started to think “what-if”. My new motto for Disney was Go Big or Go Home! I became hopeful that we would get to stay on property, AND do the dining plan, we could stay longer than just an extended weekend. I could see all the things I wanted to see!!!! It was all I could talk about. I devoured the UG and started on the Passporter. I went out and bought Birnbaums for Kids to read to Leon as a bedtime story. (Which he loved, BTW. He still asks for it every so often. I highly recommend it, as a way of getting your kids excited about the trip).

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The trial date came and they ended up offering a settlement before going to trial. It was low, much lower than either of us expected. I was surprised. We turned down the first two offers and finally accepted the third one. My lawyer said that the fact that I had a pre-existing condition (my FMS) hurt my case, and he was worried I would not get much more than they were offering, and the expense of a trial would leave us with less in the end. So even without the trial, the expenses and fees left us with less than half of our settlement. (which was also a few thousand less than the $10,000 I had hoped for).
I was bummed, big time. I told Ron to take the money for bills and we would try for next year. My Knight in Shining Armor rose to the occasion and said you take the $3,000 and plan our Disney trip, and I will make do with what’s left. I dressed up like a banana and did the happy dance -JK. I was ecstatic!!! To say the least. By now I had read the UG cover to cover, gotten half way through Passporter, but I needed MORE.

Climb every mountain, search high and low
Follow every byway, every path you know.
Climb every mountain, ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream!

A dream that will need
all the love you can give,
Every day of your life
for as long as you live.

I started going on-line. I found Mousesavers.com, AllEars.net, various others, and of course The DIS along with it’s ever addicting Disboards. So here I am with what’s got to be several hundred logged on hours (between searching for info and the Disign threads) doing my first ever (and hopefully not my last) PTR.

Have I explained yet how indecisive I can be?? No? Okay I’ll explain now…. No wait, maybe later…. No now is good, …. Ummm wait is that something that needs to be explained. Ahhh just forget it.

When deciding when, I probably changed my mind at least a dozen times or more. But really it was between these three choices:

Aug 17 – Aug 24

Oct 3 – Oct 12

Nov 22 - 30​

The last two weeks in August was a consideration because of the summer time weeks these were supposed to be the least crowded plus I did not know if taking Leon out of school would be such a good idea. Given that he has had some problems in school, I was on the fence about it. Like I said he’s a hand full, he’s is the youngest in his class and he’s a little behind with his social skills, and has had some behavioral issues in school and at home. (On the other hand, academically he is advanced, he borders on gifted – I just had to add that because really, my son is a genius ). Another reason we considered it was because with Leon being out of school, we could take some extra time and drive there, thus saving money on airfare. The reason it was ultimately nixed was the prospect of the heat of August and the crowds. I don’t deal with either very well. The meds I am on for FMS make me very sensitive to the sun and heat, and I tend to get more fatigued than at other times of the year. I started thinking about the toll it would take on me and how that would effect everyone’s good time. So on to the next dates.

I loved the idea of going in October and experiencing Halloween in Disney again. It’s my favorite time of year and it ties with Christmas as my favorite holiday. Both Leon and Ron love Halloween too. Leon loves looking at my photos from the time Ron and I were there and often talks about getting to go to the Halloween Party at Disney one day.
We had always said that when we go back to WDW, that was when we would definitely go even though we would be taking Leon out of school. So we agreed on going the first week of Oct. Yeah, Halloween Party!!!

As I started to read more and more on the DIS, I started to get more into the idea of surprising Leon with a Birthday trip ( his Bday is on Nov 30th- a Sunday ) and the bonus was that if we choose the week before leading up to his Birthday, then he would only be out of school for three days because it was on Thanksgiving weekend. Great idea, right?
…..Wrong!! I had read enough to know that going the week of Thanksgiving would be a mistake. It is known to be the busiest week to go next to Christmas week. Not to mention that I wanted to be in Disney on his Birthday, not leaving Disney on his Birthday . So we went back and forth with those dates as well.
Finally, after many discussions, Ron and I agreed that if we were already considering going in Oct, and taking Leon out of school for 5 days, why not just take him out for 5 days the week after Thanksgiving, after all it is supposed to be one of the least crowded times. And if we wanted to tack on two extra days we could, by leaveing on Thanksgiving Day. Woo Hoo! Eleven days in sunny Orlando!!!
Okay so that’s our final answer…WDW from Nov. 27th to Dec. 7th…. ….well, it was after this conversation occured first between Ron and myself :

Me : Wait, wait, wait…. Seriously?? Leave on Thanksgiving Day??? No Way! Your mom will flip! She’ll hate me. (cause it will always be my fault)
Ron : Don’t worry about it. She’ll be fine. She’ll understand… We will go on Thanksgiving and everything will be fine.
Me : Yeah, right!
We did make one other change about a week later when I had decided that we should find a late flight home on Saturday instead of Sunday . I think, Leon definitely needs at least one day to decompress before going back to school.
Fast-forward approximately 1 month, to 3 days ago, when I decide to take the plunge and book my flights. I found the flights I wanted on the days I wanted but not for the price I wanted. I soon realized that leaving for Disney one day later would save us over $200. So I told Ron that I felt we should leave on the day after Thanksgiving to save money and use it towards something else on our trip plus this way we could make his mother happy by being home for Thanksgiving dinner. My "I'm just going for the ride", “you decide”, “do whatever you think is best” husband really surprised me, when he said that he most definitely did not want to give up another day of Disney. What happened to “do whatever you want”? Oh, and “be sure to watch how you spend the money”?? He was okay with losing one day at the end of the trip, but not with losing two days from the trip. He was very keen on having 2 days per park PLUS an extra day to be a bit more laid back on. So he put his foot down…. we were leaving on Thanksgiving Day.
COOL! I love it when he takes charge like that.
So back to my computer to make the booking. Then I surprised myself; I just could not do it. I went back to him to plead the case for leaving the day after Thanksgiving again. I really did not want to upset his mom, by being away for Thanksgiving. And over $200 in savings is a good incentive to skip one day, (not to mention the fact that I already knew what I wanted to do with that saved money.
He tells me not to worry about his mom being upset, by us not being there for Thanksgiving, because she is already upset that we want to go to WDW, with just us three. WHAT!!!!???!!!! When did this happen?
Apparently, she was upset over a comment I had made to Leon a few weeks ago, when he asked (in front of her) if she and grandpa could come too. I told him “Not this time, because the first time we go to Disney as a family, we want it to be just us three”. He asked why, and I explained that we wanted to be the first ones to share in his first Disney experience, without anyone else. It was a vacation for just us three and maybe next year we could plan another trip where everyone could come too. (More on that next year thing later)
scared1: Proceed with Caution - Huge Rant Approaching
So everyone seemed happy with that idea and we went on our merry way. Or so I thought. Until 3 nights ago when Ron tells me that his mom, did not understand why we could not share his first experience at Disney. She feels like we are shutting her out, and it is unfair of us to do so. There is a seminar in Orlando that she was thinking of going to because it was around the same time we will be there and she wanted to meet up with us for a few days. Now there are a few reasons why I am opposed to this, but first let me just say this, I don’t dislike my MIL; in fact I can honestly say that I love her dearly . Not only has she done tons for Ron and Leon, but she has been there for me too in many ways. Both of Ron’s parents have. However we don’t always see eye to eye and that’s fine – no two people ever really do, but I have learned to tread a bit more lightly around her. That said her meeting up with us is just not something I want.
Maybe I am being selfish, by wanting to keep this experience more intimate between just us three. But I will never forget the first time we took Leon to the zoo and I could not wait to show him everything there was to see, and last minute Ron asked his parents to join us. (Something I wasn’t too happy about then either – but for a different reason, I’ll explain later) We had gotten there first and started to look around, it was so much fun watching him point at everything. They called us when they got there about 20 minutes later and we told them where to find us. As soon as Grandma and Grandpa came around the bend, Leon ran to them and forgot all about his dear old mom. From that point on I was chopped liver, I was the pack mule, the lady with the camera, the one who had to walk behind everyone else because there wasn’t enough room on the walkway for me… I did not like that at all! Don’t get me wrong I LOVE the fact that Leon has a great relationship with his Grandparents (all of them) but it still holds true that when any of them are around (from either side) then I am second fiddle. On THIS trip, I only want to be second fiddle to Ron. Is that selfish?
Another reason I don’t want ANYONE joining us is because Ron, Leon and I have never had a real vacation without extended family somehow being involved. I mentioned in a previous post that since Leon, our vacations are usually just weekend getaways most of which are just one-day road trips, (which really ISN'T a vacation at all). Most of the weekend trips included visiting his parents at their campsite. We did do one trip that lasted a whole week, but again it ended with visiting his parents. I’ve also had the pleasure of taking Leon to AZ for an extended period of time on a few occasions (once without Ron). Each of those times my mother went along, because we were going to see family (for 2 weddings, and to see my grandma one last time before she passed). There was also the trip to Paris for a few days to go to my Aunts 60th birthday party with my mom. Trips we would not have been able to take if my mom hadn’t offered to pay for them. One of our planned vacations (without family), was to be a road trip to Connecticut for a week, but it rained so badly that we couldn’t leave for three days, in the end we decided that we would “vacation” at home. This meant being tourists in our own state and telling NO ONE that were still at home. We had a plan for each day left – zoos, museums, parks, etc. And THAT is why I was not happy with Ron when he invited his parents to the zoo with us that first time. We were supposed to be on vacation without any extended family.
Truth be told it would not be THAT bad if both his parents (since they travel everywhere together) joined us for just one day (MAYBE even two), if it were not for the fact that my mom would go ballistic! Last year my mom had asked me when we would be going to Disney, as she knew we had been saving up to go for a few years now, because anytime I was asked what I wanted for my Bday or Christmas I would say ‘money for Disney’. I told her that we had hoped to have enough to go next year. At which time she advised me that she would be coming too. Huh????? Notice she did not ask, nor did we invite her. I managed to explain to her that we had planned to take this trip by ourselves. I gave her all our reasons for our decision, but she insisted that she should get to go because she had given us a bunch of money as gifts towards our trip. (So did Ron’s parents btw). I told her again that this was a trip for three, that we were doing this for us. As a result, she didn’t speak to me for three weeks because I was an ungrateful and selfish child. That stung for a long time (although I was used to comments like that from her). Let’s just say my mom is a very negative person, and she knows how to hurt the ones she loves most. I love my mom and she has had a difficult life, so both my sister and I overlook a lot of her digs. So, you see, if Ron’s parents ended up meeting us on this trip because they just happen to be there at the same time, I would be in deep doo-doo. It also doesn’t help that both sides feel we spend more time with the other. My mom is jealous of all the weekends we’ve spent with them, his mom is jealous of trips (as in outta state or country) that we’ve taken with my mom. Are we due for a vacation away from everyone else or what!!!????!!!! ….Whew, rant over
Annnnyway….. Knowing now that my MIL is already unhappy with us, I really do not want to skip Thanksgiving with her, so I convinced Ron, (with my idea of how we could use the savings towards even more Disney fun), that we should leave a day later.
And with that I booked our flights for Friday Nov.28th to Saturday Dec 6th 2008.

I was adamant about booking a moderate resort. After all I was all about “Go Big or Go Home” I knew we could not afford my first choice of the Poly, but I really wanted to experience Disney in style. So I chose the POFQ. The real deciding factor was the pool.

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Leon loves to swim and he loves waterslides and that dragon was right up his alley. I figured if we are not going to a water park then there should at least be a water slide at the resort. Once I started looking at the resort rates, using Ron’s airline employee discount I was more than thrilled. We could stay at the POFQ for the same price of staying at a value resort. At the same time I was looking into dates and resort prices I started checking park tickets. I started doing all sorts of calculations (and trust me math is not my strong suit). I figured out that the price difference between the non-expiring Park Hoppers and the Annual Passes were approx $200 for the amount of time we were going to stay. Oh boy! Could I turn our once in a lifetime family trip into two trips….? How was I going to convince Ron of this?

So just for kicks, I checked the POP’s rates.
Eureka! The discount was below most off-property hotels!!! I figured that with the amount we save on staying at a value resort this year; we could definitely buy an Annual Pass and try to do it again next year even if it were just for a weekend. Ron agreed it might be a good idea, as long as we stay at a value resort. Lemme see.... one trip to a moderate resort or two trips to a value????? Hmmmm. This time Quantity wins over Quality
So POP Century it is!!!

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I immediately booked the resort and put down my deposit. Oh my gosh it’s official – We are going to WDW and nothing can stop us!!

Getting There!​

I took my time in booking flights. I wanted just the right flights and the right price. Back in Jan. when it was still just a dream (because as determined as I was I did not know yet if the money to pay for it was coming), I would regularly check airfares. They were as low as $200 round trip. But I wasn’t ready to book yet, so I waited, and waited when I checked again in Feb the prices went up to $250 round trip and higher. But I wanted to wait, I was waiting for JetBlue to extend their schedule past Oct. and I was waiting for one of those $8 fares on Spirit. I signed up for www.kayak.com fare finder and Spirit’s newsletter. Normally we would use Ron’s discount to buy standby tickets, but flying on Thanksgiving Day standby would be disastrous. So I waited and watched the fares some more. Once I had booked the hotel though, I really had ants in my pants.
I knew that I wanted a really early morning flight so I could have a long arrival day, and I knew JetBlue had 6:30 and 7:15 am flights both getting into MCO before noon. FINALLY they posted the schedule for Nov and Dec. As I mentioned previously the prices to leave on an early morning flight on T-Day was much higher than to leave on the same flight the next day so we changed the dates. I booked and paid for the airline tickets and then I paid the balance of my resort reservation (after they recalculated the price to the new dates, of course). Getting more and more real!!!!

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Tickets Please!​

Okay so I still have not purchased my Park Tickets. I know, I said we were going to buy the APs, but something keeps holding me back. First of all we are now staying two days less than we originally planned, and I can buy regular Park Hoppers for significantly less than the APs. Part of me thinks we should just save this money and use it for things like Dining, DQ and Pirate Cruise for Leon. All these things were already part of my plan when we decided to do the APs, but since then a whopping $1500.00 car repair bill took a big bite out of our Disney Fund. We could probably still swing it… with me saving every penny of my income from babysitting. I just don’t know if I should bite the bullet now and just buy the APs and start saving for the rest, or save first to see how much I can get together before deciding on which tickets to buy? The thing is, no APs means less chance of us going again anytime soon. AND then there is the argument that not buying Non-expiring tickets can be iffy for us, given my Fibromyalgia which could threaten the amount of time we go to the parks (and as a result we end up wasting our tickets).
I’ve actually gone online several times to “Just Do It” but then I look at my checking account and lose my nerve.

I am subscribing to your tr. I want to say that I enjoy reading about others who don't go to Disney with thousands of dollars to spend, but enjoy is maybe not the right word. But, I think you get what I mean. The first time we went to Disney we spent $2000 for the total trip for a family of 5, back in 2000. We stayed four nights, off property, bought a two day ticket to Magic Kingdom, and one day to the old River Country water park. Oh, and a rental car. We might have had about $500 in spending, but that's about it.
Thankfully, we've been blessed to be able to afford a little more as the years have gone on, but, we still are very thrifty when we travel. We pack food for breakfasts' (sp) and lunches, and eat in the park for dinner. I make one to two dinner resies, but usually end up cancelling because I don't want to spend $100+ on dinner.
Anyway, can't wait to hear more about MIL drama.

I am subscribing to your tr. I want to say that I enjoy reading about others who don't go to Disney with thousands of dollars to spend, but enjoy is maybe not the right word. But, I think you get what I mean. The first time we went to Disney we spent $2000 for the total trip for a family of 5, back in 2000. We stayed four nights, off property, bought a two day ticket to Magic Kingdom, and one day to the old River Country water park. Oh, and a rental car. We might have had about $500 in spending, but that's about it.
Thankfully, we've been blessed to be able to afford a little more as the years have gone on, but, we still are very thrifty when we travel. We pack food for breakfasts' (sp) and lunches, and eat in the park for dinner. I make one to two dinner resies, but usually end up cancelling because I don't want to spend $100+ on dinner.
Anyway, can't wait to hear more about MIL drama.

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Thanks and welcome! I have always been a budget traveler and I think I always will. I love finding bargains - it's like hunting for treasure!
I've never done ADRs before because when it's just Ron and I - we are a little bit indifferent about were we eat. A steak is a steak, I've had $8 steak taste better than a simular $15 steak at a fancier restaurant. This year however I am going to make a few ADR's for the atmospere of it. I'll be going into that more in my next chapter.

Oh my gosh! I think we *are* sisters lost at birth! My mom (and dad!) are just the same! We moved from MI to SC and got the guilt trip from my mom as soon as DH got his job offer here ("how can you move?" "easy...I'm packing a truck" "but I won't be able to see the boys" my response "do you come see them now??" I know-not nice but I'm so beyond that with her!) We're really trying to be on a budget for our trip too-DH likes to spend but I'm a bargin shopper-always have been and always will be! Can't wait to hear more!

Oh my gosh! I think we *are* sisters lost at birth! My mom (and dad!) are just the same! We moved from MI to SC and got the guilt trip from my mom as soon as DH got his job offer here ("how can you move?" "easy...I'm packing a truck" "but I won't be able to see the boys" my response "do you come see them now??" I know-not nice but I'm so beyond that with her!) We're really trying to be on a budget for our trip too-DH likes to spend but I'm a bargin shopper-always have been and always will be! Can't wait to hear more!

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I am so glad your here!
Wow, I've said that exact same thing to my mom!!!
She claims I don't want her in Leon's life. Yet I invite her over at least once a week and she never comes. I guess it just doesn't count unless i drop everything and go to her.

203 Days and counting.
{Oh wow. I just realized that if I want to lose all my weight before Disney then I have to lose 2 lbs a day!!! Okay so that is never going to happen.}
Sorry I was just thinking to myself.